Storm in a McDonald's coffee cup

McDonald's is replacing its ground coffee and premium roast coffee with McCafe coffees this morning, leaving customers in despair over missing their usual coffee run.

The fast food chain announced the change on Facebook and with full-page newspaper ads yesterday, saying that its coffees were "retiring."

Customers were left in shock while many said they will never have McDonald's breakfast anymore.

There was also speculation that the move was a strategy to promote a new product.

Hong Kong Information Technology Federation honorary president Francis Fong Po-kiu called the "retirement" a marketing strategy. "In their promotions, McDonald's usually says 'Shogun burger is back' but not 'Shogun burger is retiring' or 'I am dying.' They usually take products off the shelf in a low-key manner. Therefore they are promoting an upgraded version of the coffee to replace it."

In a later post, McDonald's said customers can upgrade the breakfast meal combo drink to McCafe's hot Americano for free. They can also opt for McCafe's hot white coffee for an extra HK$2 or McCafe's hot latte for an extra HK$5. Customers can also enjoy a cup of McCafe's hot latte a la carte for HK$10 until September 8.

But some customers are still switching their breakfast choice, citing the increasing price, as a cup of McDonald's premium roast and ground coffee had been selling for HK$17 to HK$19 depending on the location, while McCafe's Americano and latte only went for HK$16 in most of its branches.

A customer, Lam, who has had iced premium roast coffee at McDonald's for 10 years, told The Standard that it could be a nice upgrade, but she worried about having to pay more for iced coffee. "The announcement was so sudden," she said. "I sometimes upgrade my drink to McCafe too as it tastes better. But if upgrading to a cold drink costs more, I'll eat my breakfast there less often. I may prefer dining in other restaurants as the prices will be similar."

But another customer, Kwong, did not buy into the upgrade idea, believing it was a de facto price rise: "In the past, breakfast combos came with milk coffee at no extra cost, but now I just get a cup of plain coffee and have to pay to upgrade to milk coffee," he said. "I might switch to other restaurants. Telling customers that they are upgrading the coffee to a nicer one is just linguistic camouflage."

Apart from the price, web users shared the differences between the retired McDonald's coffees and McCafe coffees.

One said: "McDonald's premium roast coffee uses coffee powder and boils it in water before keeping it warm in a coffee pot. Its ground coffee uses a full automatic coffee machine and Carnation filled evaporated milk, making it more aromatic."

He added that McCafe uses a semi-automatic coffee machine and coffee beans from Tsit Wing Coffee Company to make espresso, before adding fresh milk from Kowloon Dairy, so the taste will be similar to other coffee chains in Hong Kong.